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New Bar Laboratory at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Helps to Bridge Research and Reality

Addictions researchers face the challenge of studying complex behaviors that happen in circumstances that have little in common with typical research settings such as laboratories and clinics.

To address this, researchers in the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research have developed a bar laboratory at the West 5th Campus at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. This laboratory simulates a natural environment where people consume alcohol – allowing researchers to capture drinking processes, such as cravings in response to environmental triggers and alcohol’s effects, in more realistic situations.

“Without this laboratory, we can’t conduct state-of-the-art addictions research,” says Dr. James MacKillop. “It provides us with a unique experimental window into people’s lives that allows us to develop a deeper understanding of motivation and to investigate promising new interventions for alcohol use disorders.”